History YMMV / MasterAndCommander

* TheMillstone: Hollom. The crew doesn’t respect him due to his tendency to lose his nerve when making tough calls, such as at the beginning of the film with the Beat to Quarters needing to be called by his subordinate watch officer, and his cowardice leads directly to the death of Mizzentop Captain Will Wharley, who was a popular member of the crew. The officers don’t respect him due to his repeated failures at promotion and his attempts to fraternize with the foremast(regular) sailors, resulting in a direct reprimand from the Captain, himself. While knowledgeable and, by Aubrey’s own admission, not a bad sailor, Hollom lacks the necessary fortitude to be a good officer. Things finally culminate when “Surprise” winds up in the doldrums, where the resentment of the crew, who now suspect him to be a “Jonah,” leads to the late Wharley’s best friend, Carpenter’s Mate Joseph Nagle, to openly disrespect Hollom in front of the entire crew, leading to him being flogged. This causes things go begin boiling over with the crew now openly-contemptuous toward Hollom, leading to his suicide. And if that wasn’t bad enough, [[SaltInTheWound the wind picks back up at Hollom’s funeral service]], seemingly vindicating the “Jonah” superstition.

* StoicWoobie: Cute Lord Blakeney really deals well with his fate. Still... he could use being wrapped up in a fluffy blanket and being hugged as he has never been hugged before.

* CommonKnowledge: Many people have claimed that the film changed the enemy ship from the novel (the USS ''Norfolk'') from an American ship to a French ship so as to avoid turning off American audiences by making the Americans the villains. In fact, the filmmakers have said that this isn't the case: they only made the change because the Literature/AubreyMaturin novels are predominately about the UsefulNotes/{{the Napoleonic Wars}} (with Napoleonic France as the consistent BigBad), so they felt that it would be more fitting to give the film a French antagonist. The film also ''isn't'' a strictly accurate adaptation of ''The Far Side of the World'', but instead [[AdaptationAmalgamation incorporates plot points from several installments in the series]]. Most notably: instead of ending with an epic showdown with the HMS ''Surprise'', the novel ends with [[spoiler:the ''Norfolk'' getting shipwrecked on a remote island before Aubrey can intercept it]], which wouldn't have been ideal for a film.
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: "Doctor, don't you know you must choose the ''lesser'' of two weevils?" Maturin's "yeah, I walked right into that one" face really sells it.

* CommonKnowledge: Audiences are generally aware the enemy ship in the book is American, but mistakenly assume 1) the ending of ''The Far Side of the World'' is identical to the film and 2) the nationality was changed to avoid offending American audiences. In actuality, ''The Far Side of the World'' ends on an anticlimax and has a very different enemy ship,[[note]]The USS ''Norfolk'', the inspiration for the ''Acheron'', was a 32-gun frigate based on the real USS ''Essex'' and equal in size and armament to the ''Surprise''. The ''Norfolk'' is discovered shipwrecked midway through the book, much to Jack's disappointment that an epic ''Shannon'' v. ''Chesapeake''–esque battle would not occur, while the ''Surprise'' is forced to sea by a storm, stranding the landing party (which includes Jack and Stephen) who must coexist with the Americans until the ''Surprise'' returns.[[/note]] so the film is a composite of several books including the midpoint to the first book, ''Master and Commander'', in which Jack successfully takes a significantly larger ship (his barely armed brig against a Spanish 32-gun ''xebec'' frigate), with bits from other books. The enemy is changed to Napoleonic France because the bulk of the novels are against Napoleon, while only three involve the United States as an antagonist in any form; the creative staff felt it a sin not to have the true enemy be Napoleon.

** The movie is often cited on [[Website/FourChan 4chan's /tv/ board]] as the quintessential example of "films [[HeManWomanHater women will never understand]]".

-->April, 1805, Napoleon is master of Europe and only the British fleet stands before him – oceans are now battlefields.

* GeniusBonus: The film has a half-Spanish explorer predating Charles Darwin by decades in his study on the Galapagos. In real life, aside from his own expeditions, Darwin based part of his investigation on data collected by Spanish explorer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_de_Azara Félix de Azara]], whom Darwin admired. This might have been unintentional given the obscurity of the fact, but if not, it was a nice HistoricalInJoke inside another HistoricalInJoke.

* AwardSnub:
** Many feel this was robbed of the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Best Picture Oscar]] by ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'', and the widely held view that the trio of films were such an artistic peak of film craft that the voters collectively waited until the final installment for awarding in the non-technical categories to avoid giving Peter Jackson 9 awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay) in 3 years.

** The movie is sometimes cited on [[ImageBoards 4chan's /tv/]] as the quintessential example of "films [[HeManWomanHater women will never understand]]".

** Many feel this was robbed of the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Best Picture Oscar]] by ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'', and the widely held view that the trio of films were such an artistic peak of film craft that the voters collectively waited until the final instalment for awarding in the non-technical categories to avoid giving Peter Jackson 9 awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay) in 3 years.
** Despite the nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and every technical category, none of the ''actors'' were nominated, leading to the odd situation of the Academy nominators considering it an time great films ''except'' for everyone acting in it, who weren't quite as good as say, Ben Kingsley in ''Literature/HouseOfSandAndFog'' or Alec Baldwin in ''Film/TheCooler'', both imminently forgettable films that didn't break the Top 100 in box office revenue for the year, or Johnny Depp in the schlocky first ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movie.
** This was also the last chance for Creator/PeterWeir to get his directorial Oscar (''Master and Commander'' being his ''fourth'' nomination), due to his advanced age and not making as many films as he did in the 70s and 80s.

* GeniusBonus: The film has a half-Spanish explorer predating Charles Darwin by decades in his study on the Galápagos. In real life, aside from his own expeditions, Darwin based part of his investigation on data collected by Spanish explorer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_de_Azara Félix de Azara]], whom Darwin admired. This might have been unintentional given the obscurity of the fact, but if not, it was a nice HistoricalInJoke inside another HistoricalInJoke.

* HoYay: Between Aubrey and Maturin. They have a very close friendship, spend a significant amount of time playing musical instruments with each other, and a large amount of Aubrey's development throughout the movie has to do with how he treats Maturin. Besides, without women, this kind of behaviour was not uncommon among sailors in the Royal Navy.

** Despite the nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and every technical category, none of the ''actors'' were nominated, leading to the odd situation of the Academy nominators considering it an time great films ''except'' for everyone acting in it, who weren't quite as good as say, Ben Kingsley in ''Literature/HouseOfSandAndFog'' or Alec Baldwin in ''Film/TheCooler'', both imminently forgettable films that didn't break the Top 100 in box office revenue for the year.

** Despite the nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and every technical category, none of the ''actors'' were nominated, leading to the odd situation of the Academy nominators considering it an time great films ''except'' for everyone acting in it, who weren't quite as good as say, Ben Kingsley in 'Literature/HouseOfSandAndFog'' or Alec Baldwin in ''Film/TheCooler'', both imminently forgettable films that didn't break the Top 100 in box office revenue for the year.

** Many feel this was robbed of the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Best Picture Oscar]] by ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''. and mainly attribute that movie's win to the previous two installments in its series also getting nominated for the same award but losing.

* AwardSnub: Many feel this was robbed of the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Best Picture Oscar]] by ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''. This was also the last chance for Creator/PeterWeir to get his directorial Oscar (''Master and Commander'' being his ''fourth'' nomination), due to his advanced age and not making as many films as he did in the 70s and 80s.

* HardTruthAesop: Hollom's entire character arc basically states, "Displays of strength and decisive action (even if it's not genuine) will do you more good in this life than attempts to be friendly and compassionate, especially when being indecisive and timid." Hollom tries desperately to bond with the crew members and is viewed as a weakling for it. He never calls for any action, needlessly endangering everyone's life. In the end, he's treated as a scapegoat by everyone, including Captain Aubrey, and is ultimately DrivenToSuicide.
-->'''Aubrey''': You don't make friends with the foremast jacks, lad. They'll despise you in the end. Think you weak.

-->'''Aubrey''': You don't make friends with the foremost jacks, lad. They'll despise you in the end. Think you weak.

* AwardSnub: Many feel this was robbed of the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Best Picture Oscar]] by ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''. This was also the last chance for Creator/PeterWeir to get his directorial Oscar, due to his advanced age and not making as many films as he did in the 70s and 80s.

* AwardSnub: Many feel this was robbed of the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Best Picture Oscar]] by ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''.

* HardTruthAesop: Hollom's entire character arc basically states, "Displays of strength and decisive action (even if it's not genuine) will do you more good in this life than attempts to be friendly and compassionate." Hollom tries desperately to bond with the crew members and is viewed as a weakling for it. In the end, he's treated as a scapegoat by everyone, including Captain Aubrey, and is ultimately DrivenToSuicide.
--> Aubrey: You don't make friends with the foremost jacks, lad. They'll despise you in the end. Think you weak.

* HardTruthAesop: Hollom's entire character arc basically states, "Displays of strength and decisive action (even if it's not genuine) will do you more good in this life than attempts to be friendly and compassionate." Hollom tries desperately to bond with the crew members and is viewed as a weakling for it. In the end, he's treated as a scapegoat by everyone, including Captain Aubrey, and is DrivenToSuicide because of it.